1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle seat. More particularly, the invention relates to a vehicle seat provided with a longitudinal sliding mechanism that supports a seat body such that the seat body is slidable relative to a vehicle floor in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle, and a lateral sliding mechanism that supports the seat body such that the seat body is slidable relative to the vehicle floor in the lateral direction of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional vehicle seat is structured such that a longitudinal sliding mechanism allows a seat body to slide relative to a vehicle floor in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle and a lateral sliding mechanism allows the seat body to slide relative to the vehicle floor in the lateral direction of the vehicle (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-8028 (JP-A-2006-8028)). This vehicle seat is provided as a second row seat in the vehicle. When a seat back is tilted toward the front of the vehicle, the lock on the longitudinal sliding mechanism is released, allowing the seat body to move toward the front of the vehicle, in a position in which the seat body is folded forward compactly. As a result, the space behind the vehicle seat is increased, which creates a larger boarding space through which an occupant gets into a back seat from a door lateral to the vehicle seat.
According to the conventional technology described above, a lever used to release the lock on the lateral sliding mechanism is provided separately from a lever used to release the lock on the longitudinal sliding mechanism. Thus, when the vehicle seat is moved toward the front of the vehicle, if the boarding space through which an occupant gets into a third row seat needs to be further increased by releasing the lock on the lateral sliding mechanism and moving the vehicle seat inward in the vehicle, it is necessary to operate the levers in several steps. This makes the lever operation cumbersome.